Arkham

"Let's welcome chaos!" -Arkham

Arkham (Human)
A mysterious and shady individual, marked with burns on his own face (that creepily seems to move at some points, possibly because of his half-demon traits) and differently coloured eyes, Arkham was once human but has since become a devil, sacrificing his own wife to do so. A cruel man, he hopes to bring back the demon world through a tower known as Temen-ni-gru. Statements from Lady and Arkham suggest that Arkham may have never had these cruel intentions until he tapped into demonic powers.

Arkham is a master manipulator, pitting Dante, Vergil and Lady against each other by preying on their personalities and desires. To Vergil, he plays the role of a sycophant, pretending to help Vergil while plotting against him. He taunts and further enrages Lady, who is driven by her need for revenge on him, and later convinces her that his evil acts were Vergil's fault. To Dante he appears in the form of an apparent resident of the tower named Jester, mocking Dante as he alternately advises and challenges him.

His plans are successful, and he is able to open the gate to the demon world. He is the first to retrieve the Force Edge, and with its power combined with the restored halves of Eva's amulet, he acquires a large portion of Sparda's power and takes on Sparda's demonic form. The power overwhelms him however, and he further transforms into a shapeless form when he battles Dante. He is defeated when Vergil teams up with Dante and they cast him out of the demon world. Arkham lands back on top of the Temen-ni-guru, however the fall injured him greatly. Lady approaches Arkham causing him to try to win her sympathy claiming that he only wanted to be a god and that her mother's sacrifice was not in vain. This attempt at sympathy fails as despite Arkham's screams, Lady shoots him four times in the head killing him instantly.

In the Special Edition release of the game he appears (as Jester) as an additional boss character for the player to fight.

Jester


Arkham's alter ego, in this persona, Jester frequently taunts Dante but occasionally provides helpful hints and tips to Dante. In the special edition of Devil May Cry 3, Jester can be fought as a semi-optional enemy. (The first encounter with him in Mission 5 is mandatory; the other two encounters, which are more difficult, are not.)

Arkham in Blob Form
The apparent new god has now transformed into this gruesome beast after obtaining the power of Sparda. With this transformation, he has gained control over legions of slug-like creatures, as well as a few melee attacks which can cause immense damage. Ironically, this transformation was not a result of the induction of Sparda's powers, but rather, comes from the malevolence found in Arkham's heart.

Jester
During the first battle, he is very annoying, and he does not flinch if he's hit unless you strike while he waves his scepter tauntingly. You are free to do your most punishing and powerful combo while he's doing this. After this, Jester vanishes and summons a flurry of energy spheres and behaves more like a circus ringmaster. He still won't flinch while doing this. The spheres can be unpredictable and hard to avoid, but he summons them in one of three attack patterns: scrambled, where the spheres bounce around the whole area; this is his most unpredictable attack, circulating, where the spheres move around the area in an orderly, yet slow and circular fashion; this is the easiest to avoid, and finally, waves, where the spheres come from a single portal above Jester, but in quick, devastating waves of three spheres in all directions; this is EXTREMELY hard to avoid if you are anywhere near Jester. The only way to endure the waves unhurt is through timing your rolling and staying far from Jester while he's doing this.

The second and third battles are similar to the first one, only with three major differences:
 * They can be skipped
 * Jester attacks a bit more aggressively
 * When about half his health has been depleted, Jester will summon a giant, creepily smiling ball to ride and attack with.

When he summons the ball, Jester's arsenal of attacks will change slightly. Sometimes, the "ball" will shoot a bomb from its mouth, similar to the one that the Hell Wrath struggles with. Another ability it has is the uncanny ability to use the spectral hand found on demonic door barriers to attack, usually when Jester uses his spheres. You can tell if the ball will use it if it appears to be straining something. Then there's the four large demonic barriers the ball summons when Jester uses any sphere pattern. And finally, the ball has the ability to explode when you attack Jester with a Devil Arm before he attacks. Once you make your move, Jester vanishes, then the ball laughs and explodes a short time later. Jester then summons a new ball.

During the last battle, the ball has two more attacks: Jester will roll it around, damaging anything in its path, or he will bounce around the area with it.

Arkham (Blob Form)
Fortunately for you, this boss can only be fought once, because he is just downright merciless and hard to beat! He (or it) has a lot of painful (yet somewhat slow) moves, thanks to the power of Sparda. How ironic.

With some attacks, he changes color. His most basic is a simple swipe with his hand/tentacle. Just jump. Another more devastating move is him shooting a long, slim projectile of some kind along with a quick swipe. The projectile is damaging enough. You will know when he does this when he glows yellow. I suggest Trickster style for avoiding this move. The higher the level, the better! Another ability he has, although not really damaging, is the action of ejecting blobs out of his body while sinking into the floor, and he glows purple. The blobs are really his "legions." To deal with these, I suggest mixing it up with rolling and Devil Arm attacks when fighting these.

When Arkham's health drops to half, Vergil joins you, but Arkham will attack much more aggressively. This time, Arkham has one more move: He turns red and swipes at you, but shoots THREE/FOUR projectiles! Also, when he breaks out the legions, he will shoot much more than before, probably to compensate for the fact that it's a two-on-one battle now. Let Vergil beat 'em up; he doesn't die. Problem is: Dante does. Therefore, you should focus on dodging (and healing if you brought any Vital Stars) on the second half. Try your best with dodging, since you can't use Trickster style anymore when Vergil's around.

For the second half of the battle, a second player can play as Vergil by pressing Start on the second controller.

Trivia

 * Arkham's name was originally intended to be Hyne (pronounced Hai-neh) but Reuben Langdon (Dante) thought it would not work in English and convinced Capcom to change it. Jester's name was intended to be Joker.
 * Arkham is voiced and motion captured (as both Arkham and Jester) by Adam Clark, and credited as "Adam D Clerk" in the game's credits.